When various reports are generated using information representing knowledge accumulated in the past, it has been conventionally necessary to search and reference the contents of reports of the past with some kind of means. In this operation, a report of the past suitable for the situation should be picked up from the enormous number of reports. Therefore, it has been difficult to effectively utilize the knowledge of the past.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-140859 suggests a technique including the steps of classifying a plurality of elements constituting a report into items, generating a database upon associating the each element respectively belonging to each item with each other over the items, extracting from the database a portion of information corresponding to an extraction condition specified by a user, and presenting a list of the extracted information.
According to the technique suggested in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-140859, a user can reference the list of information, which enables the user to generate a report by using the information of the past. Therefore, the technique supports the user to generate the report in an appropriate and smooth manner. Further, since knowledge based on a report generated by other users is reflected in the database in real time, all the users are able to share the knowledge. In other words, the knowledge of other users can be referenced and efficiently used. For example, in a medical scene, a novice radiologist can reference and use the knowledge of a veteran radiologist.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2004-199406 and 2003-108417 suggest various techniques relating to addition of information to a database and extraction of information from a database.
However, it may be required to customize the range of read information according to the situation, e.g., setting a restriction on the range of information read from a database for each user. For example, the following aspect is conceivable. When a doctor specialized in a particular field references the information, the doctor is allowed to reference detailed information relating to the particular field. When a doctor specialized in a field other than the particular field references the information, the doctor is allowed to reference rough information relating to the particular field. In other words, where necessary information is not sufficiently provided or too much unnecessary information is provided depending on the level of knowledge of a user, it becomes very hard to use.
In this regard, since the technique of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-140859 allows all the users to utilize the shared knowledge, it is impossible to customize the range of information read by each user.
For this problem, just like the technique of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-199406, it is conceivable to apply a configuration of determining, when a client adding an information to the database, whether to make the added information available for reference by other clients However, with this configuration, a user who references the information from the database cannot voluntarily customize the range of information that the user references.
Alternatively, just like the technique of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-108417, it is conceivable to apply a configuration of setting, for each client, a range of information searched in the database, so that each client obtains information within the range. However, in order to specify the range of information searched, it is necessary for a user to always understand the entire information constituting the database. Therefore, customization with this kind of technique is difficult.